The Sovereign Armadas' of HM Queen Victoria VIII
"You are trespassing in Sovereign territory, 'Stand and Deliver' xeno scum; your vessel and life are now forfeit" '- Last minute of black box recording; extracted from the debris of a merchant vessel -' The Royal Armadas "Hearts of Oak and nerves of steel; the Royal Navy will always be ready for the xeno threat" The Eternal Empire commands great fleets of astro-vessels, like the other nations of the galaxy the vessels can often be categorised into 4 specific classes; Corvette, Destroyer, Cruiser & Battleship. Unlike the other nations the Royal Armadas retain a strictly nautical language and organisation; a spaceport is still referred to as a 'harbour' or 'shipwright' depending on the port's purpose. These fleets devote themselves entirely to the protection of the Empire's borders in peace-time; whilst most nations delegate security of borders to lesser forces, such as regular police or MP's, the Empire is one of the few whose 'Navy' is the primary apparatus of security. In war-time border security falls to automated kill-bots; the Royal Armadas close ranks and merge into pre-arranged compositions, from then until the end of the conflict the fleets operate as 'wolfpacks' as they come together and scatter seemingly at random to confuse the opposition. Hierarchy & Rank Structure The organisation of the 'Rank & File' within the Armada is a remodelled version of the former 'British Empire' of Earth. The present model presented here is tailored for Astro, rather than nautical, fleets; the Eternal Empire of course still uses the old structure for nautical vessels. The following model is a shortened version of an old command structure; the shortening chain of command is believed to be acceptable in the wake of technological improvements that replace lower rank duties'. First we shall address some terminology. The Armada '''is a collection of numerous fleets; a '''Fleet '''is a collection of numerous squadrons, a '''Squadron '''is comprised of several vessels. ' * '''The Empress: 'The Eternal Empress commands all. * The 'Lord' Regent: ''The Eternal Empress cannot do it alone.'' * Lord Admiral: '''The highest ranking official of the navy; unofficially the highest ranking position in the Empire, second to The Empress of course. The Lord Admiral commands & coordinates Armadas and fleets from Imperial High-Command; due to deeply ingrained maritime traditions & culture and the outcome of nations resting on the outcome of space combat, the Lord Admiral is 'first amongst equals' to those of equivalent rank. * '''Admiral: '''Charged with command over one fleet, macro manager of fleet logistics and overarching stratagems & tactics. Though all Admirals are equal, if fleets are of vastly disproportionate strength then the weaker fleet can be assimilated into the greater fleet at the will of the 'greater' admiral who then designates the 'lower' Admiral as Vice-Admiral. There are a small plethora of exceptions to this rule such as the 'lower' Admiral being deemed more capable than the 'greater' Admiral (whether this be by common agreement or the orders of the Lord Admiral), but by and large this rule holds true. * '''Vice-Admiral: '''This rank is only a temporary demotion of an Admiral. A Vice-Admiral can make autonomous decisions/commands for 35% of an overall fleet as long as the orders further the Admiral's goal. It may seem stupid to not have Vice-Admirals at all times to co-ordinate a fleet but a.i. technology bridges many communication and management gaps * '''Commodore: '''Charged with command over one squadron; often located in the squadron's cruiser, the Commodore is the first micro-manager of combat. * '''Captain: '''Commander of a single vessel; Captains have their own rank system, highest to lowest: *# Captain of the Craft: The captain of a cruiser; selected for stratagem, an innovative leader. *# Captain of the Line: The captain of a battleship; selected for fortitude, a respected leader. *# Captain of the Watch: Captains of corvettes & destroyers; standard, potential untapped. * '''Commander: While the Captain oversees directing his vessel the commander co-ordinates the crew * A.I Lieutenant-Commander: Performs system alterations such as power ratios; saving crew work time. * Assortment of lower ranks: From this point roles become increasing miniscule and most are overseen by a.i. The information below is the preliminary outline of what Satayesh Ibrahim believes to be Eternal Empire strategy; this is information is the most educated guess based on sparse reports and sensor readings from the great array, quotes from admirals and generals are sparse as they are retrieved from the minds of upper officials by psionic agents... but the Eternal Empire has long been aware of psionic abilities and so these small quotes were all that were obtained before the Empire recognised the psionic intrusion and somehow blocked further psionic access. '' Fleet Stratagems, Doctrine & Tactics ''"The destruction or paralysis of the hostile fleet is most paramount to victory; if this cannot be achieved then the survival of the fleet in being is of the highest strategic value" For reasons that shall be explained in another article, and lightly touched upon here, the Eternal Empire boasts the largest Armada in the galaxy (barring extradimensional Unbidden fleets). Fleet battle tactics have come to embrace and play to this numerical advantage. "While our technology rests on an equivalent field to most xeno, our industrious spirit brings our navy leagues ahead of the backward nations that surround us" Stratagem Stratagem -''' '''The 'Fleet in Being' The long-story short of this strategy is to always hold a fleet of substantial power; the very existence of the fleet impedes most oppositions actions, invasions cannot be undertaken and no dominance established while the threat of the fleet exists. So at all times it is absolute importance that at least one fleet of power is a present threat to the enemy; even if it is inferior to the enemy, for the fleet can remain stationed in a defensive position, ready to strike at the first mistake. Stratagem - They aim for our heart, but we have many. A new concept of space warfare is that the vessels constructed for space warfare are also built entirely in space, the very plane of combat that the conflict takes place, whilst this is true for land warfare as well; but warfare on these two fronts is fundamentally different, in land warfare it is possible to produce fighting units anywhere even without industrial capacity but in space all things come from the spaceports. The shipwrights are vulnerable to attack in space; the sole production points of military space vessels, for many nations this does not truly matter as a single decisive conflict is often the only battle truly fought in space, once one side is victorious over the other there is not enough time for the industry to replace the loses. However the boundaries of the Eternal Empire are vast and have many shipwrights; the loss of half the entire armada could be resolved in a matter of weeks or less, as such the enemy will likely aim to destroy these factories, so protecting them is key. The sources of production are thus heavily guarded with static defences that aim to cost opposing fleets dearly for any aggression; the ideal outcome is that invading fleets wear themselves down destroying these factories and smaller Royal fleets (which are replaced by still working shipwrights) until they are weak to a decisive strike. Stratagem - Successive strikes This stratagem was created solely to combat the technologically superior nations such as the Commonwealth. A pitched battle between the two fleets would likely result in a Commonwealth victory; the power of their fleets might even outmatch the entire Armada, so single fleets are dispatched to assault the enemy fleet, this fleet undoubtedly loses to the foe but ideally damaged it. With an industrial powerhouse at its disposal a new fleet is quickly constructed and assaults the damaged foe; all the while a larger or at least equally sized fleet remains in a defensive position that would be suicidal for the foe to assault. This continues until the enemy fleet is weak to an all out assault. Even if the battle is then lost, the opposition is too damaged to take advantage of the victory, giving time for a new Armada to be constructed. As you have likely ascertained; the overall strategy is to make the enemy pay dearly for invading Eternal space whilst also making them weaker and weaker over time if the enemy does not attack them. Over time the empire should assert massive numerical advantages. Doctrines Doctrine – Streamlined Armaments By limiting variation of vessel weaponry vessel, the effective positions of military vessels is universal to all vessels of their type; this reduced the need for tactical finesse as effectively managing 30 ships with 4 variations of weaponry is demanding, more so when in reality there are more than 30 and combat is in progress. By limiting variation, a fleet can better co-ordinate itself in combat; strategists of the Empire are not ignorant to the advantage of combined arms or variation of weaponry and admit that it would be more advantageous to wield a wider variation of weaponry if it were not for the loss of co-ordination. This doctrine was implemented sometime around 2270 to resolve the ungainly and ‘clumsy’ maneuvers and is hoped to some day be repealed in favor of a ‘Combined Arms’ Doctrine when a.i. is powerful enough to manage the increased management required. Doctrine – Ships of the line A doctrine that plays to the industrial power of the Empire and one of cultural tradition; battleships are not designed to be long-range weapon platforms but full on ‘battle’-ships. Besides rarer battleships; weaponry and armaments are built into the sides of the vessels so that as when the side is presented to the enemy, rather than being a weak-point, the enemy is presented with a full broadside of weaponry that eviscerates smaller crafts. This doctrine is the source of many battle tactics that will be explained below. Overall this doctrine is industrially expensive as many large vessels are damaged or lost due to the tactics bred from this doctrine. Doctrine – Concentrated firepower No matter the strength of a shield or the durability of armour, concentrated firepower overcomes more effectively than the sum of individual weapons would alone; a technologically superior shield is still worthless after it is spent, armour becomes redundant when just one hole is made. By focusing firepower on select ships, enemy shields fall much sooner, when the shield is down most fleets divert fire to another vessel while one or two Royal vessels continue to assault the enemy craft. This increases the effective firepower of an already numerically superior fleet and gives an advantage to the Empire’s vessels in their micro-battles; this is where most attention is given by Captains and Admirals, rather than on positioning multiple variations of the same ship. Overall these doctrines focus on reducing ‘brainpower’ needed for coordinating movement and instead focus on maximizing firepower; as the Royal fleets contain many ships that are too difficult to manage on a variant basis. The heart of these doctrines though, is the battleships. As you will see below in the tactics section. Tactics Tactic – Line ships Stemming directly from the ‘Ship of the line’ doctrine, the tactic involves battleships moving deep into enemy ranks and forming a line which then turns to present broadsides at the greatest concentration of enemy vessels; using side mounted weaponry these battleships subvert oppositions’ expectation that the side of a vessel is the most optimal front to attack (a side view of a vessel leaves all internal components viable to attack). These ‘optimal’ targets attract the enemy to position themselves in the direct firing zone of the broadsides, as the large distance between the opposing vessels has now been closed by the battleships, the raw firepower of the broadsides chew through smaller vessels that are unable to dodge shots from such close range. The raw destruction and ensuing chaos amongst enemy ranks is a spectacle to behold from the bridge of these battleships. This tactic is the spine of void combat; all tactics revolve around these battleships, which are heavily damaged if not outright destroyed in these maneuvers… it is the industrial capacity at the Empire’s disposal that makes this tactic viable. Tactic – Foot through the door When jumping into a heavily defended system the battleships lead the way; at the front of the fleet they quickly turn to use their sides as a shield to protect the rest of the fleet, using a strange technology the shields of these vessel ‘interlock’ and produce more power than the sum of their parts (shields interlocking add together and operate at 65% increased efficiency overall, the effect stacks cumulatively with each battleship) whilst interlocked the battleships cannot fire any weaponry making them vulnerable to torpedoes and bombers. This drawback is countered by corvettes and destroyers runners which destroy these threats; this is all temporary however, this maneuver is always followed up with the appearance of the enigmatic HMS Vindicator… this battleship is always flanked by several vessels that seem to have the sole purpose of blocking all scans of this ship and has never been seen used in any other engagements, always withdrawing from systems that aliens jump into (even when other fleets are present) The HMS Vindicator had inbuilt weaponry that is solely front facing or prow mounted; this ship upon appearing from behind the shield screen targets the defensive stations and eviscerates them from long-range, smaller prow weaponry targets any present enemy battleships… with the defenders smashed and the ‘foot through the door’ the battleships disengage their locked shields and the fleet plows through the remaining opposition… HMS Vindicator; however, turns back and jumps out of the system, not to be seen again until the next stalwart bastion needs smashing. Tactic – Grand battery Whilst the battleships brawl within the ranks of the enemy the cruisers maintain mid-range distance, far enough to use primary batteries yet also close enough to use secondary weaponry, from here they target the oppositions most ‘tactical assets’ whilst whittling down less important yet more numerous small vessels. As the battleships sow chaos and draw fire from the enemy the cruiser should operate almost free of enemy attention (most nations believe staunchly that the elimination of battleships are key to victory, so the fact that they fly deep into their own ranks is chaotic but believed to be a tactical error on the Empire’s side) so while the these mighty vessels soak damage from the enemy fleet, the rest of the Royal vessels ether sit at a distance and fire without concern for evasive movement or move around the main conflict and hit the opponents lightly defended battleships. Tactic – Go around them perhaps? A tactic that has gained its own idiom; while the majority of the enemy fleet (including their corvettes, destroyers & cruisers) is focused on destroying the Empire’s battleships, a flotilla of destroyers moves around the main battle and with the aid of a cruiser destroy the lightly defended battleships sitting at the back of the conflict. Tactic – Locust assault It is established that battleships brawl deep in the enemy fleet while cruisers coordinate long-range fire from a distance; while this occurs, a flotilla moves around and hits the back lines. In the midst of this though are numerous corvettes and destroyers that follow the battleships into the fray; after the first broadsides of the great vessels they are exposed to raking return fire, enter the ‘Locusts’, boosting themselves straight into close-range combat. These small vessels are built for absolute tooth n’ nail CQC, they tie down the enemy with superior numbers and absolute dominance in close range combat, equip with mid-weight armour these small ships can withstand the beating of other small vessels for some time… except there’s also 2 of them for every 1 enemy ship, and great battleships using full broadsides at close range. Usually the enemy would disengage but distracted with the hopes of destroying a battleship they are ordered to stay and fight. Overall: The Eternal Empire relies on closing the distance between fleets and swamping the enemy with small vessels while the great battleships draw in the enemy and eviscerate them; any fleets that attempt to stay a distance from the Empire’s fleet is taken aback by the speed of these battleships, equipped with reserves of special fuel that increase ship speed by 300% for a short time. Once engaged in conflict the Eternal Empire’s fleets sink their teeth deep and don’t let go… disengaging from a space battle is suicidal as sub-space retreat presents engines to the foe, warp jumping out is equally risky as damaged craft are usually destroyed and simple equipment malfunctions can ether prohibit warp jumping or also destroy the vessel. Oblique tactics "Our tactics are tried, tested and true; but the xeno think in subversive ways, devising and plotting solely on our downfall. But whatever treacherous trickery or malevolent manoeuvres they pull from their nefarious minds, our Eternal Empress will outmatch them tenfold" Sometimes the Eternal Empire has seen fit to use… strange, tactics. Varying from outlandish to complete suicide. Oblique Tactic – “INTO THE BREACH” Used against the invasive Dyss Ravagers during the stalwart defence of New Earth. It appears that somehow the Dyss outsmarted the Empire and launched their fleet straight into the capital system. At the time only one fleet was close enough to respond but it to was inferior to the Dyss fleet The tactic seems to involve concentrating all firepower towards the centre of the enemy fleet, regardless of losses, even wreckage is purposefully targeted; during the Dyss attack the Empire was numerically outnumbered and lacking firepower so this tactic at first seemed of little concern to the Dyss… then across all comms the chanting started. “The enemy blind our strike is true, into the breach, into breach… '' ''“The enemy deaf our strike is swift, into the breach, into the breach… “The enemy dumb they lie in wait, into the breach, into the breach, breach breach BREACH!” At the climax of the feverous chant the Royal fleet warped straight into the hole of the enemy fleet, with no opportunity to wear the fleet down as it approached (as it had literally jumped into their position) the fleet had gained it range of expertise (close range) for no cost. Battleships ploughed full speed through smaller vessels as smaller Royal corvettes picked apart unprotected cruisers… wholesale slaughter of the Dyss ensued. This tactic is seldom used by any nation as jumping into the middle of a fleet is a sure-fire way to ‘kerfuckle’ your own fleet as they fail to rematerialize properly when jumping into crowed space; however, the powerful sensors from defensive stations and removal of the many ships from the centre of the Dyss fleet cleared enough room to usefully jump the Royal fleet in with only 35% casualties… a favourable outcome indeed. Oblique Tactic – Broken Sword When a defensive fleet is set to lose a battle of strategic importance, they may send a single message back to Imperial High Command, “the sword is broken”, upon receiving the message they respond with a coded message that overloads all functional reactors, the surviving Royal vessels ram into the closest enemy vessel before exploding. Seldom used as the wrecks of both Royal and xeno are completely unsalvageable. Satayesh Ibrahim Admiral of Task Force Manticore; pioneer of Commonwealth void combat tactics, formulated counter tactics to the Eternal Empire in response to the sudden declaration of war. "Brutish and direct, the 'Sovreign Armada' is a steamrolling juggernaut; built for outright assault, it forces your hand into conflict less you be destroyed by their unending numbers... there could not be a fleet more juxtaposed to our own than this" '' Task Force Manticore is built to destroy the enemy primarily from range, using a variety of corvettes & destroyers to delay encroaching forces, act as picket point defence and also as lethal torpedo boats. A massive variety of weapon types are employed and doctrine dictates an evasive stance to combat. The Sovereign Armada is built to close the distance ASAP and destroy the enemy in close range combat; corvettes and destroyers neutralise the oppositions vessels built to destroy battleships, allowing battleships to... battle, without restriction. A small selection of weapons are used and doctrine dictates an assault stance to combat. ''"To combat the lion we must fight like an eagle, flying up high and descending quickly and without warning; we descend on the cubs first, the lion is both a prideful and boastful beast. Destroying enough of the smaller fleets should draw their ire... but the cubs have claws to, they scratch and bite enough time and the lion smells blood. So we strike hard with the aid of other nations, our loses divided amongst us all will pale to the loses of the Empire" The overall stratagem was to use the technological advantage to dispatch the Empire's fleet using 'Defeat in detail'; the Empire is unlikely to devote the entire Armada towards the Commonwealth while the Unbidden threat persists. The Empire may be an industrial powerhouse but the Commonwealth is a close competitor, the main difference really is that the Empire can produce more ships at a faster rate but both have equal resources at their disposal. The Empire couldn't possibly sustain continuous loses of entire fleets; when they see the wasted effort, they should ether remain defensive from that point or commit to a full assault... which would hopfully be dashed upon the rocks of the Commonwealth defence "We cannot hope to maintain distance between fleets in conflict; Royal ships are designed to withstand a beating on the frontal armour which is the only front they offer as they close the distance... a distance they close rapidly. So in battle we scatter our forces wide, very wide, the broadside potential of their battleships are wasted if they can only target one or two vessels; their smaller vessels are unlikely to stray far from the battleships, the battleships depend on them for point defence and their corvettes cannot hide behind the battleships if they scatter to hunt down our forces. Thus we can continue to fire upon them at range where we are most effective; we avoid the jaws of the lion and the many eagles can strike" Doctrine was of ever more complex evasion tactics; while impossible to avoid pitched battle, only a small number of vessels need be exposed to the full fleet. Were the Royal fleet to spread out their forces like the commonwealth, there would be no protection of the smaller crafts which would be picked apart by their equals at range... their battleships are useless without a mass of enemies to fight "Our enemy is not stupid; the lion has used his techniques to kill many prey, with great success I would add. Once they see the flaws they will be quick to adapt... If the history books are to be believed then this Empire is a long-standing rival of ours, they are cunning and innovative, where the sword fails the dagger will follow, where the daggers fails a silver tongue waggles; as humans they will find infiltration easier than most, do not expect military secrets to stay that way for long, keep your fleets mobile. Their tactics will quickly evolve to counter us; as our seemingly 'eternal' rivals they will be especially adept at it, so take your first victories with copious amounts of Earth Salt, less your wings get snapped in their jaws" Ibrahim's assumptions would prove correct, the Eternal Empire was aware of the naval superiority the Commonwealth possessed; they would send their fleets... and learn... ''"Their Commonwealth is founded by our cousin humans; make no mistake this is not some xeno we fight but what was once our flesh and blood, they are smart, powerful and they know who we are. Any battle they take will be on their terms... for now" '' '' '' Category:Eternal Empire Category:Military Overview